Wisconsin: 2,000 mink released from fur farm

The FBI and Calumet County, Wis., sheriff's officials are investigating the release of 2,000 mink that were set free from a fur farm.

Deputies arrived around 4:45 p.m. Saturday to the Bonlander Furs farm in New Holstein after a report of mink on the road, according to Post-Crescent Media.

One of the farm's owners, Virginia Bonlander, said about 100 family, friends and other mink farmers helped locate the mink in traps and by hand Saturday. By the afternoon, about 1,500 had been captured.

"You have to wear heavy gloves and work them back into the mink sheds," Bonlander said. "They're very fast and very sly."

The Bonlanders have operated the farm since 1978 and have about 5,000 mink. Most are shipped to Toronto to be made into hats, coats and jackets.

Whoever released the mink likely had an agenda, she said.

In the past, Wisconsin mink farms have been the target of animal rights activist groups and some endorse destruction of the farms.